Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein - ATRIA BOOKS

Print Length: 333 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1982121475
Publisher: Atria Books (June 23, 2020)
Publication Date: June 23, 2020


From the author of the Love at First Like and Playing with Matches, an electrifying rom-com set in the high stakes world of competitive gymnastics, full of Hannah Orenstein’s signature “charm, whimsy, and giddy romantic tension” (BuzzFeed).The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their emotionally abusive coach, Dimitri.

Now, reeling from a breakup with her football star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where new coach Ryan asks her to help him train a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Despite her misgivings and worries about the memories it will evoke, Avery agrees. Back in the gym, she’s surprised to find sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering effects not only for the sport but also for Avery and her old friend Jasmine.

Perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jasmine Guillory, Head Over Heels proves that no one “writes about modern relationships with more humor or insight than Hannah Orenstein” (Dana Schwartz, author of Choose Your Own Disaster).


“Hannah Orenstein’s Head Over Heels offers a perfect escape to an alternate 2020, one full of Olympic aspirations and encouraging pep talks.”
—PopSugar

"A rom-com set in the competitive gymnastics world . . . . Twisty storylines about love and relationships follow."
—MarieClaire.com “Head over Heels is a high-flying romantic comedy unafraid to examine the hardships of competitive gymnastics. Timely and realistic… Head Over Heels will delight anyone heartbroken over the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, fans of "Stick It" and "The Bronze," and loyal readers of Lianne Moriarty, Barbara Davis, and Sophie Kinsella.”
—Booklist "Strikes a powerful chord."
—The Washington Post


THOUGHTS/REVIEW:


Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein was a novel I truly enjoyed. This book definitely was a lot different than her previous works, and I have seen such a difference in her writing - while this one took on more serious themes of emotional abuse and #metoo movement. This was a very important topic that I did see in the headlines about the gymnastics world, and the ongoing emotional and physical abuse from the people they most trusted and relied on. I felt that Orenstein wrote about this with such grace and compassion for the characters, and the amazing writing really hooked me in. This read more as a women's contemporary fiction rather than a romcom.

I loved the protagonist. Avery was a competitive gymnast and an Olympic hopeful who lost the chance from an injury.  She starts school at UCLA and meets her boyfriend, a famous football player with whom after four years had a very devastating breaks up with her. With nowhere to go, Avery returns to her hometown and back to her parents' home. While there, she was offered a chance to coach an Olympic hopeful and rekindles a second chance romance meeting Ryan again, who was also in the gymnastics circuit when Avery was competing. 

I think that when Orenstein was writing this, the issues of COVID and the cancellation of the summer Olympics in Tokyo was not even a consideration, so you may have to just accept that in this fictional world in this novel. It sure made me miss the Summer Olympics very much.

I have to mention in this novel and give kudos to how Orenstein in this novel captured the gymnastics world - the writing was very well researched and captured the details of the technical aspects of the elite gymnastics competition. For me personally, I enjoyed it immensely and I certainly appreciated the research that went to writing this book. 

I thought the romance was great. It focused on Avery and Ryan's relationship and their career as coaches to an up and coming Olympic gymnast. The characters were very relatable especially for those wanting second chances not just in love but in life as well. 

I enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it as a women's contemporary fiction read that tackled important themes and subject matter. A great read I really enjoyed that captivated me into the high stakes world of competitive gymnastics. 


AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

Hannah Orenstein is the author of Playing with Matches and Love at First Like, as well as the senior dating editor at Elite Daily. Previously, she was a writer and editor at Seventeen.com. She lives in New York.

The Family Upstairs by LISA JEWELL

THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS

ATRIA BOOKS

5TH NOVEMBER 2019

LISA JEWELL

SYNOPSIS:

Be careful who you let in.

Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.

She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.

Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.

In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.

THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

This is my first Lisa Jewell book and I am definitely a fan of her writing. She brilliantly creates the perfect amount of thrill, chill, suspense, and that eerie atmosphere that will keep you glued to this book and ignoring everything else going on in your life. I had this book with me wherever I went. The book is brilliantly written and told in multiple POVs that will have you immersed in the story and the suspenseful drama that is slowly revealing itself.

The story follows Libby Jones who at the age of 25 inherits an abandoned multi-million dollar mansion in the coveted Chelsea neighborhood around the Thames area in London. She is bound to learn the truth about herself and the family that she came from. What she may not be ready for is learning who she really is and the macabre murder/suicide scene where she was left in, when she was only an infant, untouched.

I love how the story slowly unfolds while learning about Lucy and Henry’s history and current living situation. Their life gets turned around as their mother allows these new friends to take advantage of her and her family – slowly infiltrating their home and disrupting their once lovely family and life. It is quite the story with some surprises that caught me in the end that makes for a very entertaining and fantastic read for me.

I highly recommend this book for those who want a wonderful domestic thriller and suspense read that is every bit chilling and disturbing. This is my first Lisa Jewell book and I am definitely a fan of her writing. She brilliantly creates the perfect amount of thrill, chill, suspense, and that eerie atmosphere that will keep you glued to this book and ignoring everything else going on in your life. I had this book with me wherever I went. The book is brilliantly written and told in multiple POVs that will have you immersed in the story and the suspenseful drama that is slowly revealing itself. 

The story follows Libby Jones who at the age of 25 inherits an abandoned multi-million dollar mansion in the coveted Chelsea neighborhood around the Thames area in London. She is bound to learn the truth about herself and the family that she came from. What she may not be ready for is learning who she really is and the macabre murder/suicide scene where she was left in, when she was only an infant, untouched. 

I love how the story slowly unfolds while learning about Lucy and Henry’s history and current living situation. Their life gets turned around as their mother allows these new friends to take advantage of her and her family – slowly infiltrating their home and disrupting their once lovely family and life. It is quite the story with some surprises that caught me in the end that makes for a very entertaining and fantastic read for me.

I highly recommend this book for those who want a wonderful domestic thriller and suspense read that is every bit chilling and disturbing.

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and her silver tabbies, Jack and Milly.


Lisa's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/LisaJewelloff...